Materion Brush Beryllium & Composites, a Materion Corporation business, announced today it has received a supply contract from Lockheed Martin for proprietary AlBeCast® aluminum-beryllium investment cast components for the F-35 Lightning II's Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS). Terms were not disclosed.

Materion, which announced recently it was in qualification with Lockheed Martin for the EOTS components, is the current supplier of AlBeMet®, an aluminum-beryllium composite alloy, for EOTS. Aluminum-beryllium materials and castings provide favorable cost/benefit advantages for technically demanding customers requiring a combination of ultra-light weight, stiffness, mechanical stability and thermal properties.

According to Lawrence Ryczek, Vice President and General Manager, Brush Beryllium & Composites, “We have made a significant investment in advancing our casting technology, and this contract adds to our growing number of sales orders in the defense and semiconductor markets.”

The AlBeCast casting investment follows the installation and ongoing ramp-up of the primary beryllium production facility at Materion's Elmore, Ohio, operation undertaken through an innovative private-public partnership between the Company and the U.S. Department of Defense. This primary production capability supports the beryllium product lines for defense as well as critical civilian needs. Materion is the world's only mine-to-mill fully integrated beryllium producer.